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What Have You Read - 2020
The Earliest Bradbury
Beautiful collection of Bradbury juvenilia from his days in the Los Angeles-area fan scene (late ‘30s-early ‘40s). Lots of full-color reproductions of fanzines of the period. There are original Bradbury stories here too, but do bear in mind that they really are juvenilia, most written years before he began selling his work professionally. The best of them, “Luana the Living,” is straight imitation Lovecraft and, frankly, not very effective. But this book is a great window into the world of early West Coast fandom and Bradbury’s role in it.
The Best From Fantastic
Surprisingly engaging collection of stories reprinted from ‘50s and early ‘60s issues of Fantastic Magazine, one of the second-tier pulps of the period. Fantastic could get great writers—included here are Leiber, Ellison, Zelazny, Bester, and Le Guin, among others—but never with their best work. (Fantastic would generally only get a story once all the better-paying magazines had rejected it.) Still, there are some worthy pieces here—Isaac Asimov’s fantasy “Sally” may be my favorite, along with Keith Laumer’s Twilight Zone-y “A Trip to the City.”
Spyros wrote: "
I liked it, although I'm not so much into YA fantasy."That's how I felt when I read it, too.
Moon Lake. An horror comic anthology. Quite outrageous. Might not be for everybody. But, mindless fun to me. Read Now on Netgalley.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I finished Lost Boy pretty quick! Wasn't quite as 'horrific' as I wanted, but an interesting story for sure! Plenty of blood and guts, too. :DMy full review is here if you're interested: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I finished
and loved it! I found the whole story very mysterious and thrilling. I'm not big on lots of gore or intense scenes, so this book worked really well for me.
Michelle wrote: "I finished and loved it! I found the whole story very mysterious and thrilling. I'm not big on lots of gore or intense scenes, so this book worked really well for me."Thanks for the review, I have that on my TBR list.
Rachel wrote: "
"I loved The Reaping! Hope you do too!
I finished American Elsewhere which was one of our group reads. I adored it-it was creative and imaginative and I look forward to reading more from this author.
Mod
A little too crude at times for my own tastes, but it had some amusing dialogue and was generally kinda weird.
Char wrote: "I loved The Reaping! Hope you do too!"I really, really enjoyed it! Had it finished in less than a day 'cause I couldn't put it down. Loved the build up and how well everything came together in the end. So good. :)
Just started
today. Really enjoying the writing style of this author. It's been really compelling so far.
The Broken Hours
Beautifully written, highly atmospheric, and somewhat disappointing. Characters’ actions strained credulity at times, there were too many unresolved plot threads, and the Big Revelation at the end just fell flat for me—I didn’t specifically guess it beforehand, but it wasn’t terribly surprising, and it left me with little more than a shrug. On the other hand, though, the prose really sings in this book, and the atmosphere of spooky melancholy is very well done.
I finished The Strange Task Before Me: Being an Excerpt from the Journal of William J. Upton.Now I'm reading The Intern's Handbook. I enjoy both, the first is more light and funny, the second is a thriller told with a dark humor.
Christopher wrote: "The Broken Hours
Beautifully written, highly atmospheric, and somewhat disappointing. Characters’ actions strained credulity at times, there we..."
That's a bummer, Christopher. I hope your next read is better.
Hey, thanks, Char. I loved the writing itself in The Broken Hours, so it wasn’t a total loss for me. Now I’m enjoying a novel by the reliable Simon Clark, a collection of Seabury Quinn’s stories about occult detective Jules de Grandin, and am just about to start this delight: Bela Lugosi and the Monogram 9. Lugosi, 1940s thrillers, the world of Poverty Row films...I think this may have been written for me personally!
Mask of GhostsJ.H. MoncrieffNumber Five in the Ghostwriters series, set in Bali - suspenseful, scary and absorbing. Really enjoying this series
Harry Potter and the Deathly HallowsA good ending to the original series even though I still have Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts One and Two to read.
Christopher wrote: "Hey, thanks, Char. I loved the writing itself in The Broken Hours, so it wasn’t a total loss for me. Now I’m enjoying a novel by the reliable Simon Clark, a collection of Seabury Qu..."Hehe, that one looks fun, Christopher! Enjoy!
I finished listening to the latest release from Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan:
. It didn't knock my socks off, but I enjoyed it enough to continue on with the series.
J. Michael Straczynski’s Tales from the New Twilight Zone is a collection of prose adaptations of scripts from the 1980s revival series of “The Twilight Zone.” It’s probably a cheap shot to say that what this book mostly proves is that J. Michael Straczynski is no Rod Serling, but, well...what this book mostly proves is that J. Michael Straczynski is no Rod Serling. Most of these stories are really quite poor. Only the first, “The Mind of Simon Foster,” makes much impact, though “Special Service” is interesting in how it predates the movie “The Truman Show” by a decade (“The Truman Show” is a much better treatment of the idea, however). “Our Selena is Dying” is adapted from a leftover Rod Serling outline, and so it has a bit of historical interest. The rest of this collection is so forgettable that I’m already having trouble remembering what some of the stories were about only one day after having read them.
David wrote: "Ive just finished 
The Complete Drive-In byJoe R. LansdaleB movie madness!"
Can't go wrong with Joe Lansdale! He can write anything.
Char wrote: "David wrote: "Ive just finished The Complete Drive-In byJoe R. LansdaleB movie madness!"
Can't go wrong with Joe Lansdale! ..."
He's right up there as one of my favourite writers.
The Flight AttendantA weak 3 star rating, I didn't find anything suspenseful or mysterious about it.
The Beginning or the End: How Hollywood--and America--Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Hollywood and the A-bomb—a different kind of “horror,” but a fascinating book.
Dracula and Other Horror ClassicsBook by Bram Stoker
Songs of Giants: The Poetry of Pulp
Wonderful collection of “pulp poetry” by Howard, Burroughs, and Lovecraft. T.S. Eliot it ain’t, but considered on its own terms a lot of this poetry is quite effective and even memorable. Be sure to get the audio version along with the book itself—it’s really immersive to experience the poetry, Mark Wheatley’s illustrations, Mark Redfield’s readings, and Jennifer Rouse’s music all at once.
Bela Lugosi and the Monogram 9
There are some interesting observations in this book but the authors take these Monogram programmer cheapies waaaay too seriously.
I just finished Duma Key and it was an amazing reading experience and amazing book!
The Moorstone Sickness.Recently finished Bernard Taylor:
. A good British slow burn, very understated. I liked it.
Monica wrote: "I just finished Duma Key and it was an amazing reading experience and amazing book!"I really enjoyed that book. A good "missed" King
solitaryfossil wrote: "The Moorstone Sickness.Recently finished Bernard Taylor:
. A good British slow burn, very understated. I liked it."I ADORE Bernard Taylor!
I finally finished The Living Dead by George Romero and Daniel Kraus and I thought it was amazingly good, though a bit long.
Char wrote: "solitaryfossil wrote: "The Moorstone Sickness.Recently finished Bernard Taylor:
. A good British slow burn, very understated. I liked it...."Same here, glad I started reading his books, I like his writing style a lot.
Pact of the Fathers is an excellent thriller by the great Ramsey Campbell. For some reason it’s very low-rated on GR...but then most of Campbell’s books are low-rated on GR, which is a shame—he’s a marvelous writer. Overall I probably prefer his supernatural work, but this novel is as gripping and suspenseful as anyone could ask for.
Just finished The Auctioneer and it was the kind of horrifying that's not going to leave my mind for sometime. Not in a spooky way, but in a "I don't trust people anymore" kind of way.
The pandemic somehow stunted my reading for a few months, so I'm pretty far behind my goal for the year. However, I did discover William Gibson this year, and he is a new personal favorite. Neuromancer I read twice. Also 1984 and Brave New World for the first time. The only horror titles I've read this year Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Doctor Sleep. Really enjoyed Ligotti.
Slaves to Gravity by Wesley Southard and Somer Canon
Plenty of twists and unexpected turns. Thoroughly enjoyed it
I found Horrorstör quite delightful. At the start it reminded me of the great (if short-lived) TV series “Wonderfalls,” as well as the comic strip “Retail”—but then it went off in its own macabre direction. In a way it does for IKEA-type stores what Romero’s “Dawn of the Dead” did for shopping malls, exposing their eerie unreality. This is a new type of haunted house....
I read
by Mark Gillespie. He tends to write apocalyptic/dystopian stuff, but this is particularly dark, despite being set in Hollywood. There are two more books in the trilogy, waiting for me on my Kindle.
Christopher wrote: "I found Horrorstör quite delightful. At the start it reminded me of the great (if short-lived) TV series “Wonderfalls,” as well as the comic strip “R..."
I read Horrorstör some years ago, after buyed it in the Paperback edition and I liked the story. This is another version of the classical haunted house, only set in a Ikea style warehouse.
The contrast between supernatural events and daily routine lets this story intriguing.
Andrew wrote: "Christopher wrote: "I found Horrorstör quite delightful. At the start it reminded me of the great (if short-lived) TV series “Wonderfalls,” as well a..."
I also like the way the book was set up, pretty unique idea as if you were reading a catalog.
Horror Aficionados
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It was awesome and an instant favorite for me.